This Sunday, the Cleveland Browns take on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Below, we analyze a few advantages, disadvantages, or general thoughts about the two teams before getting to our predictions for the game.
Rose-Colored Glasses
If I was trying to be completely optimistic despite the horrible performance in Week 1, what would I say?
Maybe Deshaun Watson did just need to knock off more rust after being out of action for almost two years, coming off two Achilles injuries.
Maybe with how bad the defense played, the defensive
coordinator won’t be stubborn about sticking with what sucked and is more likely to make radical adjustments.
It was an ass-whipping so bad that even a stubborn coaching staff can’t say, “it wasn’t our day.” It has to be something you address immediately to try to recognize your mistakes, own them, and think of ways to fix them. Like, for example, when Travis Switzer (see the quick hitters section) talks about how they adjusted things in practice to quicken things up and hopefully prevent delay of game penalties.
Cleveland actually got some really solid efforts from the whole offensive line and their rookie receivers last week. Special teams also showed some promise. Shake off the bad, and maybe you find yourself in a competitive game this week.
The Reality
There’s actually some truth embedded in portions of the first section above, but in summary, the execution of Deshaun Watson and the defense in general last week were both abysmal. As I said earlier in the week, for Watson, the fans could overlook some of his mistakes, if it weren’t for the fact that we’ve been dealing with the same story for years now. Nothing has changed.
- Baker Mayfield squares off against the Browns for the second time, the first being when he was with the Panthers a few years ago. I root for Mayfield any time he plays; I feel like he’s still a Brown, which goes to show you just how much this organization f’ed up with their quarterback handling a few years ago. You had your quarterback of the future, and you dumped him for absolute dogs*#t.
- The Jaguars have grown into an efficient, well-oiled machine on offense, coupled with Trevor Lawrence making some outstanding individual plays. The Buccaneers are different. I view them as a scrappy offense that relies consistently on the heroics of Mayfield to get them somewhere. Sometimes, it’s awesome and pays off. Other times, it leads to turnovers as he tried to do too much.
- The Browns’ defense is probably what concerns me most heading into this game. What we saw last week was horrible, and nothing like the defense that I expected to still dominate oppositions this year. It’s certainly possible that they quickly get back to what we thought they would be, but if we see another game of them being lost, it’s going to be a long season.
- I think Cleveland’s offense has a chance to be better this week, because we saw the ingredients of other pieces of the offense playing well. Despite how much we hate Watson, there are some days where he can play up to an average level.
- Quinshon Judkins needs to be a lot better this week. He gets somewhat of a pass for the first game, due to the Jaguars’ statistical run defense ranking from a year ago.
- On offense, I hope we see Isaiah Bond get some more reps than Tylan Wallace.
- On defense, I’m looking to see if Maliek Collins’ reps go up, while Adin Huntington’s reps go down. I also want to see more of Emmanuel McNeil-Warren.
- According to FanDuel, the Browns are 8.5 point underdogs against the Buccaneers. The over/under is 41.5.
Quick Hitters
Defensive coordinator Mike Rutenberg gave some vague answers about the defense playing more zone than man in the first game:
“You know, again, it’s all about getting the players in the best position. Sometimes zone turns out to be man. Sometimes man can have zone feels. And the truth is, collectively, we’re going to do everything we can to put our best effort forward on Sunday. And again, starting with yesterday’s practice today and focusing then on tomorrow’s practice.”
Offensive coordinator Travis Switzer talked about some of the procedural things they adjusted in practice this week, to help prevent things like delay of games:
“…like this week, we cut the play clock down a little bit in practice. We’re going to do all the subs from the sideline. So, those are things that we’re doing now to try to address those things. But yeah, I would agree, and I didn’t see it coming either. It wasn’t like it was a daily issue, certainly. But those are kind of the things we’re doing moving forward to address that.”
Special teams coordinator Byron Storer was asked about the success with RB Raheim Sanders getting a 74-yard kick return last week, and he praised several blockers for helping make it possible:
“Yeah, it was really a combination of Mike (Michael) Burton, Tylan Wallace, Blake Whiteheart, and then Malachi getting the block right there at the end to seal it. It was a fun play, and now I feel like I’m so far removed from it, I’m on to the next one. But it’s a testament to the guys blocking up front, and then Rocket going out there, trusting his eyes and hitting it, and showing the speed that he has out there.”
Here are predictions from multiple staff members at DBN:
Predictions
Chris Pokorny: “I didn’t have faith the Browns would actually win last week, but I picked them to try to have some positive mojo to begin the season. Being down 24-0 early in the second quarter set the tone that there is no optimism to be had right now. Cleveland may improve upon some things, but being beaten like that can take an immediate toll on confidence. We’ve also seen headlines about the players not being in on Watson. So for whatever marginal improvements there might be, no one in their right mind can legitimately point to a reason why Cleveland should win this week.” Buccaneers 24, Browns 14
Curtiss Brown: “I understand people want to dunk on the Browns and get their jokes off but let’s be real. Yes, the Browns played atrocious last week. That’s not an opinion it’s a fact. However, they aren’t the only team that played poorly in their season opener. It’s only magnified because it’s Cleveland. I know they played poorly but the Miami Dolphins looked bad, same can be said for the Tennessee Titans.
As far as the game goes, this is Baker Mayfield’s second revenge game against his former team (he lost the first one when he was in Carolina with the Carolina Panthers). If Baker can’t outplay Deshaun Watson (which isn’t hard to do) then that’s on him. Offensively, asking Watson to look competent seems too big of a task for him. Offensive line blocked well enough in pass protection but the run blocking is a work in progress.
Defensively, I am giving the defense some form of grace for last week because its a lot of moving parts but their performance still needs to be better by their standards. The players know it and they held themselves accountable for it.
Overall, this team can’t look worse than did they did last week. I’m not saying they are going to win this game (because they wont) but I expect the execution to be better. The effort wasn’t lacking. Whether Baker Mayfield gets his revenge or not, doesn’t matter because he had an opportunity in 2022 to get it and he failed. Pressure is on him to not be as reckless as he was last week. Don’t know what to expect from this game to be honest but most fans are expecting Tampa Bay to blow Cleveland out. I don’t see it. Maybe I’m wrong.” Buccaneers 26, Browns 16
Barry Shuck: “It looks like it will be another rough afternoon for the Browns and their “rusty” offense. While you don’t want to put too much emphasis on Week 1, nothing good stood out about the offense, while the defense had coverage mistakes reminiscent of when Jim Schwartz was DC.
Baker will do Baker things, Watson will continue to do … whatever it is he does … and everyone will gird their loins for another long week of stupidity in the run up to the home opener.” Buccaneers 24, Browns 7
Jared Mueller: “Normally, I stay a bit on the homer side of picks for the Cleveland Browns, but Week 1 was so bad that I may not be able to do that again.
Week 2 is set up to be either Baker Mayfield’s explosion or implosion. After three fumbles in Week 1, leading to the Bucs loss, Mayfield is likely to bounce back strong at home” Buccaneers 28, Browns 17
Who do you think will win, Browns fans? Let us know in the comments section below.
